Throughout the process of creating my final product, I used a number of different technologies, some new to me and some I had already used previously.
Photography
I used two different cameras when taking my photos - an iPhone 5 and a Samsung Camera. I found both extremely easy to use - this was due to the fact that I already knew how and had used them before. Consequently, I faced no problems, other than that of making they had a full battery charge.
The Samsung Camera shot a slightly better quality photo, due to this I had the intention to use if for my cover, however I ended up choosing an iPhone 5 photo because it was better for what I wanted and needed for the cover. All other photos in my magazine are shot with the Samsung, however I also find that it is hard to determine which one uses which as the qualities are so similar.
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| Samsung Camera |
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| iPhone 5 |
Furthermore, when taking my photos, I had to work out how to structure the lighting in the room and this therefore changed the overall effect and quality of the photo. Also, I believe that the fact my main cover image is shot on a phone shows the staggering developments in technology, and it also connects to the younger demographic with how they adapt to the advances of technology. This means that the photos are of a standard that they are used to seeing.
Editing
For editing my photos I used two editing websites - Pixlr and BeFunky and the software's Pages and Microsoft Publisher. I used these on a school Apple Mac and my own Asus laptop. All of the technologies were new to me at the time, except Microsoft Publisher. Therefore, I had to learn how to use them through help from people who had previously studied GCSE media, as I had not, and experimenting myself.
On Pixlr, I used a combination of the Express web app and the Editor web app. I also had an abundance of photos to choose from as I had taken so many, this meant I did not need to constantly alter or edit the same ones - something that would have made the process lengthier than it eventually was. On Express I ended up airbrushing blemishes, removing shine and smoothing the images. Additionally, I used both Express and Editor to add overlay images and text.
It took a while for me to completely understand Pixlr and how to use all the different tools. This caused a slight problem because I didn't immediately get to grips with how saving the images worked as so it caused lots of irritation when I wanted to change something. However, this was not a large problem in the grand scheme of things, and the pros of Pixlr far outweighed the cons. As a result of this, it was my main editing tool for my cover page and other images in in my magazine because it helped me achieve the style I was going for and also created a professional look.
As Pixlr was my main editing tool, I used BeFunky as more of a photo enhancer. This is because I edited the images in terms of cosmetics - making eyes brighter, eyebrows more defined and thicker eyelashes. The web app was simple and easy to use which made the process quicker as I had not originally intended to use it - it was, as I have previously stated, an enhancer. This is because I used it after I had edited using Pixlr so the main adjustments had been made already.
Microsoft Publisher was the software that I used for my contents page. This was because I had access to more fonts, unlike pages, and this was important because I wanted to use a mixture of serif and sans - serif to make it. Furthermore, I was familiar with it and so it made the process quick and easy. However, due to it being Microsoft, I did not have access to it at school on the Apple Mac, and so this meant that the process was done at home. This was an inconvenience because if I saw faults at school I could not edit them, but other than this, it didn't cause any major problems. The quality was also good as it didn't pixelate any of my images, so the professionalism of my magazine wasn't affected.
Pages was a whole new concept for me. This was because I had always used to Microsoft Office, however, due to its simplicity, it took no time at all for me to understand it and adapt to how it works. I used it for my double page spread in terms of writing and editing the text as well as attaching the image to the text. I was able to do this by firstly creating my interview in portrait and chose this software because it was easier for me to use to create the entire two pages. I then created a landscape page and joined the separate image and text together. Throughout the whole process there was nothing I found particularly hard or that I couldn't overcome by myself. Perhaps my only problems were how to layout the text so it fit in a portrait page and looked how I wanted it to look so I was happy with it.
Computers/Blogger
I used both my computer at home and the school Mac. I found this a little challenging because of the differences between them and the fact that they were both new to me - I had never used a Mac and my computer was new. Consequently, I was not familiar with how they worked, mainly the Apple Mac, and so I was often asking for help from those who had used them. This was probably the main cause of the problems I had as I needed to learn where and how to save my documents, what taking a screen shot of an image did and how I could use it. However after a while I had successfully adapted, for the most part, and there was little problems during the rest of the creation of my magazine.
Blogger was also completely new to me, and I had never hear or seen it. It took some while to get to grips with in terms of how it everything worked and the concept of writing posts for people to see. Now, I feel that I have learnt to use it effectively and have changed it to fit with my theme of simplicity and minimalism. Consequently, I have built up my confidence in writing posts and have improved how and what I write.
Overall, I found a mixture of things hard throughout creating my magazine, but I managed to successfully overcome all of them. Taking my photos caused little problems and Pixlr was both frustrating and time - consuming, but I used it most throughout my editing process. My main issue was that almost all of what I used was a new experience to me, and so I think that I have done well in adapting to use it, even though it wasn't extremely complicated to learn. Therefore, I have learnt that many different technologies can be used to create a professional effect and that we are not limited by what photos we take because of all the different tools and ways we can edit them.
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